Boylston's town meeting is Monday, May 5

BOYLSTON — Voters next Monday will have an amicable budget to settle, several spending articles and two zoning bylaws to consider when annual town meeting convenes at Tahanto.

A special town meeting will begin at 7 p.m., followed immediately by the annual meeting.

Special town meeting is being called to amend the current budget. The one article would give to the school department more than $90,000 not used toward vocational school tuitions this year. If approved, next year's budget will be reduced by $50,000 to account for using a little more than half of the money for next year's budget.

Fire truck

Voters also will be asked to purchase the first new piece of fire apparatus since 1996, Fire Chief Joseph Flanagan said.

This year's town meeting will be asked to pay the $200,000 down payment for the truck that meets the criteria for both a ladder truck and an engine, Flanagan said. Half of the money this year will come from free cash, half will come from ambulance receipts. If approved, the remaining payments would be $100,000 over the next five years.

The new truck will replace two aging vehicles, Flanagan said. One is a 1989 engine truck. The second is a 1982 ladder truck.

"Both of which the (National Fire Protection Association) says are out of compliance due to age," Flanagan said.

The Finance Committee has stated that the $100,000 payments are around 22 cents per $1,000 in value on the tax rate, Flanagan said.

Flanagan said the truck was ordered to fit in the current fire station. Space will not have to be rented for the truck.

"The new apparatus, as specified, is the same size as the existing ladder truck," he said. "It will fit in the fire station without any problems."

Zoning bylaws

The Planning Board on Monday voted to recommend two changes to the zoning bylaws that, according to the debate among board members, are flawed, but better than the town having nothing in place. Both articles were placed on the warrant by the Board of Selectmen.

One article calls for zoning to regulate medical marijuana facilities. Medical marijuana was approved by voters statewide two years ago. Town Counsel Stephen Madaus said the attorney general has ruled that towns may not prohibit the facilities. He raised the issue with selectmen, noting that, if the town did not dictate where the facilities could be placed, they could be built anywhere.

The proposed bylaw, based on a bylaw used in other communities and already vetted by the attorney general's office, would regulate where such facilities could be built, not operations, which is under the purview of the state Department of Public Health.

But, it is possible that, for Boylston the law is too restrictive.

Health Agent Dennis Costello and Board of Health Member Sarah Scheinfein spoke to the law's details, saying, as written, such a facility possibly could not be built right now. As a health matter, the issue has been approved by voters and should be available if the residents so wish it, they said.

"We're not adverse to regulating it. We're adverse to taking it off the table," Costello said. "Right now, it looks like it is off the table."

In question is a requirement that the dispensaries not be within 500 feet of residences. As currently developed, the areas along Route 140 where such dispensaries would be allowed appear, at least on paper, to all have homes within 500 feet.

As a caveat, Costello said he had not reviewed the map in detail. Planning Board Chairman William Manter noted, since the article came from selectmen, and not the Planning Board, he had not physically surveyed the parcels either. However, he agreed with Costello that most of the parcels would likely be prohibited.

Planner Laurie Levy noted that the board was planning for the future, and it is expected that, once parcels now for sale along Route 140 are subdivided, there would be available parcels.

Manter said one of the reasons the Planning Board did not bring a similar bylaw forward on its own is because he feels, right now, it is not needed.

Overall, there are only going to be 35 such dispensaries in the state. The closest recent application was for Route 9 in Shrewsbury, but that applicant withdrew. Traffic is much higher on Route 9 than on Route 140, Manter said.

"In general, we have time to prepare. The economics are not there for this town to be one of the 35 at this time," he said.

He did credit selectmen for their concerns, saying he believes the legalization of medical marijuana is only the start of a trend that will ultimately make the drug legal for other purposes. Those changes will likely require major bylaws changes and this article, he noted, is a start.

Ultimately, the board agreed to recommend passage of the bylaw, to protect the town from the possibility an applicant could come forward. It also serves to protect the town from potential issues. Route 140, Planner Ralph Viscomi noted, is highly visible, whereas other parts of town may not be.

However, potential changes still may be addressed later.

"Better to have a potentially flawed bylaw than to have nothing," Planner Richard Baker said. "I recommend approval, and we can do the research we need and modify it later."

The board also voted to recommend a second Board of Selectmen-sponsored bylaw change. It is to correct an apparent clerical mistake.

Sometime, somehow, Boylston lost a dimensional table for the Industrial Park Zone. The matter was brought forward to selectmen by the building inspector. The zone in question is almost entirely at Hillside, which is town-owned, but does include a few private parcels.

While no one can find a vote that changed the bylaw, the town did have a dimensional table in the past, as late as 2007.

Initially, Madaus put forward an article that simply restored the previous dimensional table. However, upon further review, Madaus also noted there are more uses than allowed in 2007, creating an inconsistency in the bylaw. Those uses include a gas station, building supply store, contractor's building, a repair shop and a self storage facility.

Like the marijuana zoning bylaw, the board felt it was better to have allowable dimensions defined, rather than to table the law for another year. However, the recommendation comes with the request to remove all uses not allowed in 2007. The bylaw would then be addressed by the Planning Board, possibly to be amended at the next town meeting.

Baker, who spoke in favor of selectmen appointing the Hillside Study Committee that has been left vacant for several years, noted the dimensional table would at least give that committee a guideline, if people were finally appointed to it.

Landfill lease

Another article which could create discussion is an article that would allow selectmen to lease a portion of Hillside (aside the Tivnan Drive entrance) and the former landfill on Mile Hill Road for use as a solar field.

Town Administrator Martin McNamara said selectmen want to be prepared to act quickly if a project was proposed.

"We do not have any plans or RFPs out, however, we get calls all the time from people looking to do solar projects in town," McNamara said. "The Board of Selectmen just wanted to be prepared in case something should come in that the town wants to do."

Selectmen already have the right to lease another Mile Hill Road parcel, adjacent to the landfill, to a cell tower company. That approval was given by voters in 2009, at a special town meeting .

An agreement was started with a company for the Mile Hill Road site, but the company eventually went out of business and the town has not solicited new proposals for the site.

Other articles

Other articles includes: A 2 percent pay raise for non-union employees, an increase to the senior tax rebate program that would pay to the state's minimum wage, an amendment to the town's bylaws to increase fines for multiple false alarms (this would mostly affect businesses), $25,000 for tree trimming services, $25,000 to purchase a catch basin cleaner and just under $38,000 to start phase two of the library renovation (see a related letter, page 6, and a detailed story on the project at weeklybanner.com).